Steven Rattner, the former “car czar” who helped advise the Obama administration on the auto-industry bailout, said Monday on “Morning Joe” that he thought the Obama campaign’s latest attacks on Mitt Romney’s private equity record were “unfair.” The RNC jumped on the comment, quickly linking to a video of Rattner’s comments.
Rattner disagreed with the ad, but he didn’t exactly back up Romney’s claim that what he did at Bain Capital was create jobs. Instead, Rattner took the position that the purpose of private equity is not to create jobs. Rattner is no stranger to finance. Before being brought on by the Obama administration to oversee the auto bailout, Rattner worked for years as an investment banker before co-founding Quadrangle Group, a media-focused private-equity firm.
“I think the ad is unfair,” Rattner said. “Look, Mitt Romney made a mistake ever talking about the fact that he created 100,000 jobs. Bain Capital responsibility was not to create 100,000 jobs or some other number. It was to create profits for its investors, most of whom were pension funds and endowments and foundations. And it did it superbly well, acting within the rules, acting very responsibly, and was a leading firm. And so yeah, I do think to pick out an example of somebody who lost their job, unfortunately, this is part of capitalism, this is part of life, and I don’t think Bain Capital did anything they need to be embarrassed about.”
Watch:
The Obama ad attacking Romney and Bain focuses on several workers who lost their jobs when a GST Steel plant owned by Bain Capital closed. The ad is up in five swing states. Watch it here.
